The padded injury reducing non slip pool decking generally relates to impact attenuating materials for slip and fall injury reduction. More specifically, it relates to decking that absorbs impact forces from human limbs and heads thrown into the decking. The decking of the invention, such as pads around swimming pools, reduces blunt force trauma injuries. The decking has a slip resistant surface that also resists microbial degradation in the presence of water: freshwater, chlorinated water, and saltwater.
For millennia, people have gone swimming in a variety of water bodies: streams, creeks, rivers, beaches, ponds, lakes, and oceans. People just like water and have a hard time resisting its attraction. Those water bodies have their typical natural surroundings which can be soft or hard, sandy or rocky, cold, warm, or hot. Swimmers understand the risks in swimming in natural water bodies.
As populations in cities increased over the last century, more people lived away from natural water bodies. In overcrowded cities of the early 20th century, city leaders and landowners foresaw the need for artificial swimming places: municipal and private swimming pools of all description. Seeking to keep construction costs low and retain the water in the pool, owners used primarily concrete to construct swimming pools.
During construction, a contractor excavates the earth to reveal a volume for the eventual swimming water. The contractor then builds the pool by placing concrete upon the surface of the excavation, or later lining the excavation with various membranes. The contractor also places appropriate water supply and water removal plumbing into the pool construction as per the plans and specification of the architect. With the pool volume prepared in the excavation, the contractor then places a deck adjacent to the pool excavation and generally parallel to the desired water surface in the pool. The deck may be slightly higher than the water surface. Preferably the deck is of concrete to serve as a pavement resistant to the water, chlorine, and sunlight present at a swimming pool. The concrete deck also limits seepage of water into the ground beneath and around the pool. Concrete retains its inherent hardness.